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To Write or Not to Write (a Guide on Assembling a PC)?

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
I was thinking of putting together a detailed guide on PC parts and how to best pick which ones to buy when assembling or upgrading a PC. However, said guide would be lengthy and require quite a bit of time to compose, so I thought I'd first ask to see how many people here would be interested in such a guide in the first place.

What are your thoughts? Would that be a thread you'd find useful or interesting?

Thanks for your feedback!
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
There are many such guides now if I understand the intent that can be found by searching for do it yourself pc guide

I probably won't build one from components, but if I were to do that, how would I know yours was different/better than others and was up-to-date given the changing state of computer technology?
 

McBell

Resident Sourpuss
I was thinking of putting together a detailed guide on PC parts and how to best pick which ones to buy when assembling or upgrading a PC. However, said guide would be lengthy and require quite a bit of time to compose, so I thought I'd first ask to see how many people here would be interested in such a guide in the first place.

What are your thoughts? Would that be a thread you'd find useful or interesting?

Thanks for your feedback!
Is the PC still on the 6 month outdated cycle?
 

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
There are many such guides now if I understand the intent that can be found by searching for do it yourself pc guide

I probably won't build one from components, but if I were to do that, how would I know yours was different/better than others and was up-to-date given the changing state of computer technology?

That's a fair question, and the answer is that for any guide, not just mine, you would have to research and use more than one source of info to make sure you've properly weighed all of your options before making any purchases. That and I'd put a disclaimer that the guide applied to the time of writing, not necessarily anytime after. :D

It would primarily be an expression of my love for PCs (as well as my majoring in computer science :p), first and foremost. Even if it didn't end up being the definitive source for info for anyone seeking to build or upgrade a PC (and like I said, no guide should be such, mine or not), I'd still have had fun putting it together just because of how much I'm interested in the topic.
 

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
Is the PC still on the 6 month outdated cycle?

Are you asking whether PC parts get outdated after six months? If so, generally not anymore, especially not for GPUs and CPUs. Die shrinkage has gotten progressively harder to achieve over the years, and Moore's law is actually at its limit with certain PC parts now.

As an example, Intel is currently still on a (highly refined) 14nm process node for their processors, and it has been several years since they were last able to shrink the die size of their consumer-grade CPUs. Consequently, the performance and power-efficiency gains for each respective CPU generation they have put out since then haven't been anywhere near revolutionary compared to the generation preceding it.

You can only cram so many billions of transistors on a die before you start having issues with trying to cram more. That's how terrifyingly advanced PC hardware has gotten in the last decade or so.
 

McBell

Resident Sourpuss
Are you asking whether PC parts get outdated after six months? If so, generally not anymore, especially not for GPUs and CPUs. Die shrinkage has gotten progressively harder to achieve over the years, and Moore's law is actually at its limit with certain PC parts now.

As an example, Intel is currently still on a (highly refined) 14nm process node for their processors, and it has been several years since they were last able to shrink the die size of their consumer-grade CPUs. Consequently, the performance and power-efficiency gains for each respective CPU generation they have put out since then haven't been anywhere near revolutionary compared to the generation preceding it.

You can only cram so many billions of transistors on a die before you start having issues with trying to cram more. That's how terrifyingly advanced PC hardware has gotten in the last decade or so.
Cool.

The problem I was having when I looked into it back in November is compatibility issues.
It was driving me nuts until my wife hit a deer on her way to work (third shift) and we ended up having to spend the money on getting her vehicle fixed and transportation to and from work while the shop babysat hers for three weeks.

So it will be a while before I will be able to re-enter that adventure.
 

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
Cool.

The problem I was having when I looked into it back in November is compatibility issues.
It was driving me nuts until my wife hit a deer on her way to work (third shift) and we ended up having to spend the money on getting her vehicle fixed and transportation to and from work while the shop babysat hers for three weeks.

So it will be a while before I will be able to re-enter that adventure.

I hope you can get yourself a nice PC soon! Sorry to hear about the accident. That must have been difficult to deal with.
 

McBell

Resident Sourpuss
I hope you can get yourself a nice PC soon! Sorry to hear about the accident. That must have been difficult to deal with.
No one was hurt.
Well, except for the deer.

This PC is ok, but it lags like crazy end game PoE.
Even worse end game WoW
I know it is the video card, but to upgrade it I have to upgrade the MB which means a new CPU, new RAM.....
 

Audie

Veteran Member
I was thinking of putting together a detailed guide on PC parts and how to best pick which ones to buy when assembling or upgrading a PC. However, said guide would be lengthy and require quite a bit of time to compose, so I thought I'd first ask to see how many people here would be interested in such a guide in the first place.

What are your thoughts? Would that be a thread you'd find useful or interesting?

Thanks for your feedback!

Start it with a very quick condensed set of instructions.

I had a video camera with a 100 page book,
didn't even get started till page 20 or so.

I just figured it outvmyself.


I've had a small role in manual writing. Its hard!
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Start it with a very quick condensed set of instructions.

I had a video camera with a 100 page book,
didn't even get started till page 20 or so.

I just figured it outvmyself.


I've had a small role in manual writing. Its hard!
I have written instructions for others to do some of what I do. I'm so familiar with it that I have lost track of what people need to know and their background. That's where I experienced 'hard'.

Writing good, helpful instructions is a talent.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
I was thinking of putting together a detailed guide on PC parts and how to best pick which ones to buy when assembling or upgrading a PC. However, said guide would be lengthy and require quite a bit of time to compose, so I thought I'd first ask to see how many people here would be interested in such a guide in the first place.

What are your thoughts? Would that be a thread you'd find useful or interesting?

Thanks for your feedback!
The problem, as others have stated already, is obsolescence.
The big question everyone in computer science projects has to try to answer is: will, what I'm going to do be still relevant when I'm finished or will somebody have it done first (and better) than me.
You need confidence bordering on hubris to answer that in the positive.
An idea (with no guarantee that nobody else had it before or is going to produce it faster than you) is to write a meta-guide. How to find relevant and trustworthy guides on the internet.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
What are your thoughts? Would that be a thread you'd find useful or interesting?

Thanks for your feedback!
I have assembled desktop computers, but I don't have much to say about this. Once the parts are chosen they fit together easily, and that is not mysterious.

Choosing parts is difficult. It is more difficult than it was twenty years ago since the names are obfuscated. Computer parts ought to have names which declare their capacity, but this is not how they are named. Instead they are named in a confusing way to keep us from easily grasping what that capacity is. The names are intentionally misleading. Sometimes salespeople have difficulty selling computers for this reason alone. They can't explain why computer A will be faster than computer B.
 

Mock Turtle

Oh my, did I say that!
Premium Member
I've built desktops (from a few decades back so plenty of space), and such coming from college courses and the several books I have on such, but I'd be interested in modern stuff even if I have no intention any more of 'messing with the hardware'. :D
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Are you asking whether PC parts get outdated after six months? If so, generally not anymore, especially not for GPUs and CPUs. Die shrinkage has gotten progressively harder to achieve over the years, and Moore's law is actually at its limit with certain PC parts now.

As an example, Intel is currently still on a (highly refined) 14nm process node for their processors, and it has been several years since they were last able to shrink the die size of their consumer-grade CPUs. Consequently, the performance and power-efficiency gains for each respective CPU generation they have put out since then haven't been anywhere near revolutionary compared to the generation preceding it.

You can only cram so many billions of transistors on a die before you start having issues with trying to cram more. That's how terrifyingly advanced PC hardware has gotten in the last decade or so.

I understand light to be the limiting factor. More precisely the die size is restricted by the wavelength of light used by the lasers used to etch the die. When i last investigated this, admittedly over 7 years ago, they were just moving to blue lasers. Where the chip manufacturers went from there i dont know.

As for the paper, my knowledge of PC components ends around 5 years ago. Unfortunately the last PC i built (4x4core processors and twin pny graphics cards) went up in smoke about 6 months ago. Perhaps i should have built another from scratch, i would had i been up to speed. But alas i bought off the shelf.
 
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Audie

Veteran Member
I have written instructions for others to do some of what I do. I'm so familiar with it that I have lost track of what people need to know and their background. That's where I experienced 'hard'.

Writing good, helpful instructions is a talent.

Needs an expert and a noob to write it!
 
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